From 1991, always at the forefront

The term “ARTES” summarises our program: the Latin word for crafts, the fruit of a long and continuous learning process.

ARTES as creative synthesis in which the results of individual skills develop from other human and professional experiences.

This is the philosophy that guides the internal evolution of ARTES as well as its actions on the field.

Since its foundation, ARTES has conceived and realised action-research projects in partnership with national and international bodies, publishing the results in different languages.

Research is constantly supported by on-the-field experimentation in order to identify, test and develop models and tools which, although made for specific realities, are designed to be easily transferred to different contexts.

In ARTES, we live work as a patient and meticulous creation resulting from the integration of professional people who are used to work in teams.

Whoever our client, public or private, large or small, we adhere to standards of professional excellence that reflects our values, ensuring the achievement of the entrusted mission according to the highest standards of quality internationally recognised.

History

1990

ARTES was founded in 1991 and was devoted to the research of training policies, strategies and models (methods, professionalism, organisation, …).

ARTES participates in international teams made up for the harmonization of languages and statistics relating to VET – Vocational Education and Training and in the development of a shared system of continuing education in the Member States of the European Union.

ARTES publishes a successful volume: In-companyTraining. New frontiers in Europe and becomes a partner of reference for universities and research centers in Europe in the field of articulation between labor policies, training and industrial policies.

2000

At the end of the ’90s ARTES is at a crossroads: just research or action as well?

ARTES chooses the path of research – intervention and the field of interaction between innovation and learning, both of individuals and collectives. It begins a phase of design and implementation of successful large pioneering projects in the field of social inclusion, new models of counseling to small businesses, quality systems in health services, new mechanisms of interaction between supply and demand for highly educated young people.

The design and implementation of a wide range of projects are part of this phase: ALLIANCE – An alliance for the development of work and enterprise in rural areas, women at the border, Women at the Frontier, INTRAPRENDERE, Talent Tree – hospitality to the future.

2010

In 2011, ARTES completes 20 years of activity, with the maturation of a clear vocation of the institute: devoted to the design, implementation and management of large projects for the regeneration of fragile areas (weak regions) based on the integration between choices and investments in frontier technologies and development of natural and cultural heritage of a community.

Method

Build a team

Deciphers of signs and cognitive maps, of individual and collectives, in a friendly relationship with the experimental ground, with the reality of everyday life not researchers shrunken in distress of their mind. Fellow travelers who are not afraid of loneliness or failure.

Aim, share and evaluate

Very often, in real life, the start of a project corresponds to a jump into the “unknown” or “not fully known” even by the initiators.

When a project includes among its objectives the achievement of consensus, as well as the commitment of a large area of key actors, and not only of the project team, then it takes on a greater uncertainty and complexity, and the ability to project themselves forward and describe the features of the final expected outcome, the forecasting ability, the ability to gain understanding in advance, then the consent and commitment of all actors, become critical vital factors.

Listen and decipher signs

The approach to territories and subjects, understood not as passive recipients, but as key actors, true protagonists, requires a structured listening, designed meticulously, using and adapting techniques and tools designed and tested in years of meticulous work on arduous physical and virtual ground.

Fascinate and involve

In order to identify the key players and their change facilitator or contrasting roles, as well as to get their commitment, it is necessary to apply a “pedagogy of encouragement”, for helping the protagonists cross borders and overcome obstacles, as well as a “pedagogy of forgetting”, to dismiss “mental habits” and entrenched beliefs, with techniques and tools of “creative learning” and “learning forgetting”.

Theoretic research and analysis on-the-field

The research goes steadily alongside our work and requires rigorous methods, both quantitative and qualitative and iron discipline in the cycle of the information science: accurate strategy of access to the sources (from “identification” to their appropriate consultation), analysis and verification , the translation into models of intervention, then experimental verification and subsequent review and final tuning to prepare the transfer into new environments.

Project implementation

To traditional models of project management, based on the obsessive attention to the planning of activities, we prefer a clear focus on the ultimate and critical goals, so as to ensure a clear orientation for each member of the team who will be able to choose what to sacrifice, what does not give up, how to prevent and manage risks and contingencies.

Communication

Vital aspect of every change facilitation initiative. Artes entrust to visual communication and technology a fundamental role in the support of all the phases of the project cycle.

Modeling

The modeling is the foundation for the capitalisation of the field experience and creates the premises for transferability.

Artes

Artes was born in 1991 from an idea by Lilia Infelise, industrial economist of Calabrian origin.
The philosophy that guides the institute is to connect a thorough theoretical research to practical on-the-ground actions, in order to achieve a decisive impact at the institutional level.